The Taupō Volcanic Zone (TVZ) is a volcanic area in the North Island of New Zealand that has been active for at least the past two million years and is still highly active. Mount Ruapehu marks its south-western end and the zone runs north-eastward through the Taupō and Rotorua areas and offshore into the Bay of Plenty. It is part of a larger Central Volcanic Region that extends to the Coromandel Peninsula and has been active for four million years. The zone is contained within the tectonic intra-arc continental Taupō Rift and this rift volcanic zone is widening unevenly east–west with the greatest rate of widening at the Bay of Plenty coast, the least at Mount Ruapehu and a rate of about 8 mm (0.31 in) per year at Taupō. The zone is named after Lake Taupō, the flooded caldera of the largest volcano in the zone, the Taupō Volcano and contains a large central volcanic plateau as well as other landforms.
Mount Tarawera is a volcano on the North Island of New Zealand within the older but volcanically productive Ōkataina Caldera. Located 24 kilometres southeast of Rotorua, it consists of a series of rhyolitic lava domes that were fissured down the middle by an explosive basaltic eruption in 1886. While the 1886 eruption was basaltic, study has shown there was only a small basalt component to the previous recent rhyolitic predominant eruptions. This eruption was one of New Zealand's largest historical eruptions, and killed an estimated 120 people. The fissures run for about 17 kilometres (11 mi) northeast–southwest.
Lake Ōkataina is the northernmost and largest of four smaller lakes lying between Lake Rotorua and Lake Tarawera in the Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. The others are Lake Rotokakahi, Lake Tikitapu, and Lake Ōkareka. All lie within the Ōkataina caldera, along its western edge.
Lake Rotorua is the second largest lake in the North Island of New Zealand by surface area, and covers 79.8 km2. With a mean depth of only 10 metres it is considerably smaller than nearby Lake Tarawera in terms of volume of water. It is located within the Rotorua Caldera in the Bay of Plenty Region.
The North Island Volcanic Plateau is a volcanic plateau covering much of central North Island of New Zealand with volcanoes, lava plateaus, and crater lakes. It contains the Taupō caldera complex, Ōkataina caldera complex and Tongariro Volcanic Centre resulting in it being currently the most frequently active and productive area of silicic volcanism on Earth. New Zealand is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
The Oruanui eruption of New Zealand's Taupō Volcano was the world's most recent supereruption, and largest phreatomagmatic eruption characterised to date.
Lake Taupō, in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, fills the caldera of the Taupō Volcano, a large rhyolitic supervolcano. This huge volcano has produced two of the world's most powerful eruptions in geologically recent times.
La Pacana is a Miocene age caldera in northern Chile's Antofagasta Region. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it is part of the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex, a major caldera and silicic ignimbrite volcanic field. This volcanic field is located in remote regions at the Zapaleri tripoint between Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.
The Maroa Caldera is approximately 16 km × 25 km in size and is located in the north-east corner of the earlier Whakamaru caldera in the Taupō Volcanic Zone in the North Island of New Zealand.
The Whakamaru Caldera was created in a massive supereruption 335,000 years ago and is approximately 30 by 40 km in size and is located in the North Island of New Zealand. It now contains active geothermal areas as well as the later Maroa Caldera.
The Kapenga Caldera in New Zealand’s Taupō Volcanic Zone lies in a low land area immediately south of Lake Rotorua through the Hemo Gap in the Rotorua Caldera rim. At some time more than 60,000 years ago Lake Rotorua drained through the Hemo Gap and some of the Kapenga Caldera floor was likely occupied by a lake, that has been called Kapenga.
Ōkataina Caldera is a volcanic caldera and its associated volcanoes located in Taupō Volcanic Zone of New Zealand's North Island. It has several actual or postulated sub calderas. The Ōkataina Caldera is just east of the smaller separate Rotorua Caldera and southwest of the much smaller Rotomā Embayment which is usually regarded as an associated volcano. It shows high rates of explosive rhyolitic volcanism although its last eruption was basaltic. The postulated Haroharo Caldera contained within it has sometimes been described in almost interchangeable terms with the Ōkataina Caldera or volcanic complex or centre and by other authors as a separate complex defined by gravitational and magnetic features.. Since 2010 other terms such as the Haroharo vent alignment, Utu Caldera, Matahina Caldera, Rotoiti Caldera and a postulated Kawerau Caldera are often used, rather than a Haroharo Caldera classification.
The Paeroa Fault is a seismically active area in the Taupō District, Waikato Region of the central North Island of New Zealand.
The Ohakuri Caldera was formed in a paired single event eruption of Ohakuri ignimbrite and is located in the Taupō Volcanic Zone on the North Island of New Zealand. Its significance was first recognised in 2004, as the geology of the area had been misunderstood until then. The paired eruption resulted in a very large eruption sequence in the Taupō Volcanic Zone about 240,000 years ago that included the formation of Lake Rotorua and eruption of the Mamaku ignimbrite.
The Ōkāreka Embayment is a volcanic feature in Taupo Volcanic Zone of New Zealand. It most significant recent volcanic eruption was about 15,700 years ago and this deposited the widespread Rotorua tephra that reached beyond Auckland.
The Horohoro Fault is in the old Taupō Rift of the central North Island of New Zealand and is associated with the spectacular Horohoro cliffs.
The Taupō Fault Belt contains many almost parallel active faults, and is located in the Taupō Rift of the central North Island of New Zealand geographically between Lake Taupō and the lakes of Rotorua, Tarawera, Rotomahana and Rerewhakaaitu. The potential active fault density is very high, with only 0.1 to 1 km separating the north-east to south-west orientated normal fault strands on detailed mapping of part of the belt. The Waikato River bisects the western region of the belt.
The Tikitere Graben is a intra-rift graben in the North Island of New Zealand that contains the Ohau Channel, which drains Lake Rotorua into Lake Rotoiti with a minimal drop between the lakes.
Omanawa Caldera is inferred by an area of magnetic anomaly that exists to the north-west of the Rotorua Caldera. It is also located to the north west of the present boundary of the modern Taupō Volcanic Zone but its existence would be compatible with activity in the area of intersection of Taupo Rift and Hauraki Rift before 1.9 million years ago. The area of the caldera is covered by Mamaku Ignambrite from the Mamaku eruption of 240,000 years ago that formed the Rotorua Caldera. Eruptions from the Omanawa Caldera would explain formations such as the Waiteariki ignimbrite which covers much of the Bay of Plenty and forms the bulk of the Whakamarama Plateau. This would date the major caldera formation to 2.1 million years ago. However, there are at least eight large eruptions that occurred in the Tauranga Volcanic Centre between 2.4 and 1.9 million years ago and at this time which ones relate to this caldera can not be definite. However to date there is no other obvious closer inferred volcanic structure to assign a super volcanic eruption to, so at least some of these eruptions are likely to be associated with the Omanawa Caldera magnetic anomaly.
The Rotoiti Caldera is a postulated, mainly infilled sub caldera of the Ōkataina Caldera based upon gravitational and magnetic evidence. While bathymetry of Lake Rotoiti is consistent with volcanic vents being present, they could be in an area of collapse subsidence outside the north western margins of the Rotoiti Caldera itself.
